 Thank you, Charmaine. It's a pleasure to be with all of you today Again, my name is Chris Perry and I have the honor of serving as the executive director of the first five years fund FFYF works to advance bipartisan Federal policies and investments that increase access to high quality early childhood education for children from birth to age five Especially those living in poverty Like all of you we are committed to making sure every child in America has the early care and learning Experiences they need at the most critical period of human development Early family life quality child care nutrition learning and so much more Help shape brain development and the foundational cognitive and social emotional skills that determine success in life on Virtually a daily basis We are reassessing and recalibrating our strategies geared toward meeting our goal This year we believe that means building off of Bipartisan progress we've made in Congress and with this administration over the past several years So that whomever is in the White House and Congress in January They are compelled to work together to achieve great things on this issue Three critical elements of this success are the bipartisan early childhood track record of lawmakers in Washington growing state leadership and overwhelming public demand first in DC we've seen some tremendous examples of bipartisanship on early childhood From major reauthorizations on the tales of contentious elections To increased funding of core early childhood programs all in large part due to what we often say is the best tool in our tool belt The ever-growing state demand from red and blue states alike State and local leaders are truly leading the charge when it comes to expanding access to high-quality choices for parents and their children and As federal advocates it is our job to harness that demand and convert it into action The Learning Policy Institute's report is an invaluable resource that adds necessary details to our talking points this report Provides insight into how States have converted their goals of increased access to quality early learning into a reality for children who need it most Finally public demand Americans think we should be doing more to invest in early childhood to which creates a huge leverage point Every year FFYF conducts a national bipartisan poll with the same pulling firms Used by NBC News in the Wall Street Journal the poll allows us to do so many things But perhaps most importantly we're able to go to candidates and lawmakers and show them that supporting a greater investment in early childhood Education is not just a safe vote. It's what their constituents want them to do in Just a few weeks. We will be releasing the results of our latest poll And let me tell you the data looks incredibly promising at the end of the day We know that high-quality programs are what yield the best results for kids and Society and the early learning policy institutes new report provides us with so much new wisdom and knowledge Into what states can do to increase the quality of their programs and so much more now more than ever Voters are ready for policy makers to act on the ever-growing arsenal of research and voter demand and help states and communities provide better early childhood education opportunities It's our hope that we can leverage this bipartisan grounds. Well in the new administration Congress and beyond. Thank you you